What happens when a capital markets pro pivots to product? In this episode, Kiley Lubeck and I discuss her journey from manually confirming allocations on a broken CMS to building tech that processes billions. We cover the brutal art of roadmap prioritization, why fintech PMs think like compliance officers, and how our biggest product wins came from solving our own worst pain points.

July 17, 2023

It’s been a fantastic few weeks for our marketplace as the volume of deals coming to market has been happening at a rapid pace. Credit to the Underwriting and Commercial teams that have been working on overdrive to clear out this backlog and pipeline that we have. In the past week alone, we’ve launched three new borrowers, one of which was with an inaugural underwriter, closed on one new deal with a new underwriter, and have likely two more borrowers on deck for next week, one of which is for another new underwriter. 

July 10, 2023

A bit of a departure from the usual weekly email but when Paul Graham (founder of Y Combinator, one of the top startup incubators in the US) writes something, it's usually worth pausing and taking the time to read. In his latest piece, "How to Do Great Work," he shares his perspective on what anyone needs to do to be successful in any field. Some key takeaways that were most impactful for me and directly applicable to what we're building here below:

I break down the absurdity of today’s private credit markets: no liquidity, no standards, no real price discovery. But I also talk about what comes next—and how real infrastructure could double the market and unlock access for 199,000 underserved companies.

July 3, 2023

Over the past week we've inadvertently stumbled into meetings with prospective underwriters who are intrigued by our value proposition for the white labeled solution. Discussions that were supposed to be about partnerships in some way shape or form have led to demos of the product.

June 26, 2023

The next few months will be incredibly exciting as we begin to push through key improvements on our own internal workflows, deliver on the first pass of multi-market functionality, and get real feedback from real beta clients who can give us the first glimpse to where we're headed and what we need to do next to provide a comprehensive software solution.

In this episode, I sit down with Paola Rios, our VP of Investor Relations & Syndication and employee #7, who's been with us since the early days when syndication was just "scramble." We dive into the art of matchmaking between borrowers who want cheap money and investors who want high returns, the plot twists that make her wish for a punching bag, and why herd mentality drives more investment decisions than you'd think. If you’ve ever invested in a deal on Percent, Paola probably had something to do with it.

June 20, 2023

As we've built up 4 years of track record and knowledge about how private credit transactions work from start to finish, we've been able to whittle down one by one all the major tasks that we have had to do manually. Whether it's chasing down signatures for subscription documents, confirming investment requests, sending out compliance attestations, the list is lengthy but these were all the things we knew we had to build in order to run an efficient and effective marketplace.

June 12, 2023

It's an interesting time in technology as we've seen AI come at full force to the point where it almost feels like that's all anyone can talk about. To its credit, it has done an incredible job at bringing a sense of wonder as we are in awe at its potential. Still, we're very much in the early innings and it's a technology that has delivered uneven results.

In this episode, I’m pulling back the curtain on Percent’s chaotic origin story—from having investors lined up with zero borrowers to closing our first deal for a few hundred thousand dollars we now laugh about. I share the unglamorous truth about playing the two-sided confidence game every marketplace founder knows, why we chose to be exponentially better rather than revolutionary, and the critical lessons about flexibility that saved our company. This is the real story of how we built Percent, scramble and all.

June 5, 2023

Building a company with longevity can often be compared to getting a massive freight train to move. You’re adding cars to the train by building all the components of the product and you’re priming the engine by putting in place all the operational structures it takes to scale. Every little win, every small success, and the gears start to turn but it’s still slow going early on. The train crawls forward inch by inch and all the effort being put into it doesn’t seem to compare to the results.

May 30, 2023

In a year like this where markets are volatile and being able to predict how things are going to play out is harder than ever, it's inevitable that it won't always be smooth sailing. We managed to clear our lofty revenue targets in January, February, March, and April by grinding on all fronts and also catching a few lucky breaks along the way (as we always seem to be able to do). 

What does it take to be approved for a deal on Percent? This week, I chat with Bina Shetty, who leads our originations team and brings decades of investment banking experience to the table. We cover how we underwrite non-bank lenders, why Latin America is a breakout region for private credit, and why the best founders keep things simple and scrappy. It’s a behind-the-scenes look at how our marketplace works—and what we look for in every borrower.

May 22, 2023

It's been a long road to get here and I recognize that the path itself has been difficult. We were forced to make hard decisions, rein in our spending, and oftentimes that has led to us having to change our culture to adapt to the new normal. While we've been able to hit the ground running this year with an incredibly strong start, we've also ended up losing some of what makes our team tick.

May 15, 2023

Today marks an important milestone in our company’s life. Five years ago to the day, we officially incorporated ourselves in our small office in Tribeca that we shared with a few other companies. Five years later and I could have never imagined we’d be what we are today.